16/06/2023

The Secretary of State for Energy has just published (BOE 16/06/2023) the resolution with the new rules for the organised gas market, MIBGAS, and the guarantees manager (BOE 1/06/2023). The new rules are an update of those published in a resolution issued by the same body in December 2015, the month in which trading on the organised market began, and they focus on improving the gas market and the guarantees manager. The improvement to market governance, established through these new rules, reinforces and strengthens the progress made by MIBGAS in constantly improving its liquidity and utility.

The new rules were proposed by MIBGAS, the market operator and guarantees manager, and, as required by law, were subjected to a rigorous consultation procedure. Firstly, they were discussed by the Market Agents Committee, with the members giving their unanimous approval and they were then submitted to the MIBGAS Board of Directors. They were subsequently submitted to a public consultation process for consideration and approval by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, with a prior report from Spain’s National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC).

Published today, these rules will bring several improvements to MIBGAS agents and users, including the definition of new price indices, as well as an improvement in the methodology for calculating the final price, reinforcing its representativeness in scenarios of low liquidity and high volatility, and its comparability with other European markets.

In addition, the rules include a service for cancelling erroneous transactions/mistrades, subject to certain conditions set out in the new rules, and the distribution to agents of the bank interest earned on their contribution to the market’s collection and payment account. For agents with market maker agreements and agents providing the mandatory market maker service, it is established that, in situations of high volatility or exceptional market operation, the market operator may determine by means of Instructions the modification of certain compliance conditions and/or the total or partial exemption of the service for a specific period of time.

Finally, the market rules have been updated, incorporating the modifications required to bring them into line with CNMC Circular 2/2020, of 9 January, which updates the natural gas balancing rules and with the rules applicable to MIBGAS Derivatives and the trading of products with delivery in the VTP. Various Instructions and appendices have also been consolidated in these rules, simplifying them and making them easier to understand.

With regard to the new rules for MIBGAS as the gas system guarantees manager (published on BOE 1st June 2023 ), the most significant modifications include the allocation to users of the bank interest accrued for their contribution to the account of the guarantees manager, the incorporation of credit cooperatives as guarantor entities and the increase from three credit rating agencies to four for the assessment of compliance with the conditions required of the guarantee instruments.

All these changes, which improve the operation of the Iberian gas market, come into force with the publication of the rules in the BOE, thus adapting them to reflect the changes that have taken place in the gas sector in recent years.